Police blast rogue fans for Etihad damage

Police have blasted the rogue soccer fans who caused tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage at Etihad Stadium, saying it was the worst display of hooliganism they have seen at any sporting event in Melbourne.

About 170 seats were destroyed at the stadium during the Melbourne Victory/Melbourne Heart derby on Saturday night. 10 flares were also lit during the game – nine inside the stadium, packed with about 41,000 people, and another outside the venue.

Victory and Heart have both joined police in condemning the attack, pledging to help identify the offenders and hit them with five-year bans.

Victoria Police Inspector Paul Ross said officers were reviewing the stadium’s CCTV footage and was confident the offenders will soon be caught.

‘‘We are certainly confident of apprehending the people responsible. The CCTV footage we have got on the whole is pretty good.’’

Inspector Ross said five people had been charged with lighting the flares but police were yet to charge anyone with damaging the seats. He said about 120 chairs were destroyed in the Heart supporter area and 50 from the Victory supporter area.

But although Inspector Ross condemned the unruly behaviour, he was adamant that hooliganism at soccer games in Melbourne was not out of control.

‘‘The troublesome minority behaves a lot worse that what they would at say an AFL game. But I just reiterate that its a very small minority [who misbehave] out of the 41,000 people who were present. We are only really talking about a couple of dozen.’’

Inspector Ross declined to reveal how many police officers were patrolling the stadium on Saturday night but he said the number was adequate.

He said police review officer numbers before each Melbourne game and would be meeting with representatives from the soccer clubs before the next derby.

Melbourne Heart chief executive Scott Munn pledged that the miscreants would be identified and then hit with a five-year ban by the FFA.

Munn said that the club had already received many phone calls from supporters disgusted by the actions of a small minority, with fans identifying those they knew who had taken part in the carnage or offering footage shot on mobile devices at the time of the destruction.

"This is something that we must condemn as a football club. There was significant damage done and we will not tolerate it. We are working with Victoria Police, the FFA, Hatamoto (the security company at the venue employed by FFA ) and Etihad management to identify the perpetrators so we can ensure they are not welcome at our games for a very long time," Munn said on Monday morning.

"We are very confident we will be able to do so. Today we have had people providing us with footage of people carrying out the damage."

Munn said these sort of actions are often, but not wholly perpetrated by teenagers who believe they are aping the actions of "ultra crews" and hard line supporters in South America and parts of Europe.

But in trashing a venue and gaining widespread publicity for all the wrong reasons they not only run the risk of fines and bans themselves, but they damage a sport they purport to love and wish to see grow in popularity.

"They totally misjudge and misrepresent the overwhelming majority of fans, players and people who work in the game. There is no way any of this can be excused. It’s anti-social behaviour," said Munn.

Melbourne Victory’s general manager of operations, Trent Jacobs, echoed Munn when he said there was no place in the game for such stupidity.

However, he pointed out that perspective should be kept given the few numbers of ejections from the ground in such a big crowd.

’’Our club does not condone such anti social behaviour and we will be working with all the relevant authorities to eliminate this sort of behaviour.

’’It's a shame all the publicity has been about this, because the overwhelming majority of the 41,000-plus crowd were very well behaved. There were only 10 fans ejected on the night.’’

Seat damage in the derby fixtures is not a new phenomenon. There were plenty broken the first time the two clubs met at Etihad in round one this season and there was also damage at AAMI Park when Heart hosted Victory shortly before Christmas.

"Football is not a violent or dangerous sport. I travelled to the game on the train and home again and it was a safe environment and I experienced no issues," said Munn.

"But a tiny minority of anti-social fans are giving those who want to criticise and attack the sport all the ammunition they need with these sort of behaviours," Munn said.

Police also arrested several other soccer fans on Saturday night for public order offences that were not related to damaging the seats or lighting flares.